My care meter on the Ferguson, MO shooting involving an unarmed young black man named Michael Brown and Officer Darren Wilson is low. Initially I was shocked that my care meter started high and dropped so low so fast. But now, after a bit of reflection, I know why: [icopyright one button toolbar]
Everyone already knows what happened…
It’s very cut and dry. Michael Brown was unarmed and surrendering when racist cop Darren Wilson shot him in cold blood AND Michael Brown was a wannabe thug that assaulted good cop Darren Wilson and was killed because he kept up the assault.
THERE! Everyone already knows what happened so why care.
Here is the problem when it comes to the police and black people: the state of affairs is BEYOND loaded. Because of this, the narratives are pre-defined along racial lines usually. Pre-defined along political lines usually. Thus the Ferguson Situation looks like this:
Now this doesn’t mean the life of Michael Brown was garbage. Nor minimizing the pain of his mother, family, and friends. Nor minimizing the situation and emotions swirling around Officer Darren Wilson (yes he is a human as well). But because of the pre-established narratives regarding black folks and police (narratives that contain truth and falsehoods), the amateurish Ferguson Police Department, a selfish and sickening group of looters, and political/social opportunists, we have a overfilled garbage of “WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED” on all sides.
When we really don’t. We really DO NOT KNOW…. yet.
Of course we can make educated guesses. We can theorize and postulate. We can practice highly refined Facebookering and Twittering in order to show that we are skilled in the art of verbiage. Heck, I’ve done some myself with Ferguson. But now I’m quite silent. Because the case has been solved.
Everyone already knows what happened…
Maybe I missed a technological breakthrough. Word on the virtual street is that I missed the “Minority Report” technology to see a crime before it happens. They called it the Pre-Crime Division. You see it and you stop it before it happens. Well, in the Ferguson case, we can just see it. But there seems to be a blip in the fabric of the space-time continuum regarding the Pre-Crime Computer. It is showing two different futures.
Oh? What’s that? My trusty Future Time Interpreter Siri-GoogleNow-Anna told me that I’m missing the point. It’s one future that those that know what already happened see. I’m just seeing the two because I’m a “sickeningly neutral heathen”. And as the Italian poet and author Dante Alighieri said:
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.
But is this a great moral crises? Or is it a crises wrapped up in the filth of opportunism (and I’m not talking about the looters now)? Those that need their narratives to further agendas that do a disservice to Michael Brown and Officer Darren Wilson? The truth is out there… Somewhere… In a corner… Wrapped up and stuffed away.
Oh dear. I’ve strayed away a bit. Well, everyone already knows what happened. All the rest of the “stuff” in Ferguson, MO is just Americans exercising. Yes exercising. Marching and protesting is a physical activity. Shooting tear gas at them is a physical activity. Good, clean, and wonderfully wholesome American exercise. And I’ll leave it at that…
Not quite.
I have come to the conclusion that this is a great moral crisis. A great moral crisis of EPIC CONCLUSION MAKING (ECM). How can there be any justice when everyone already knows what happened? How can we accept a jury’s decision since everyone already knows what happened? How can we, as Americans, fix ANYTHING, when we already know what happens? Why can’t we table our educated guesses (we can make them, just table them) so that all evidence can be collected? So that our court system can work through this. I know why not:
Because everyone already knows what happened. I think it’s about that time Edward Murrow… “Good Night and Good Luck”… we really really need that luck.
I’m not complex. Don’t have time for all that. And all that complex stuff bad for the stomach. Just color me simple and plain with a twist.